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The Balanced Kitchen

Time for food. Time for Life.

Honey Greens: A Taste of Spring!

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Early spring is by far my favorite time of year. I love it when the colors start to creep back in—the grass becomes more vibrant, the evergreen leafs get brighter, and the buds on the trees start to come to life. And then there is always that one day when it all suddenly POPS! As I was driving my kids to school yesterday I suddenly noticed how GREEN everything was looking and I realize that it was that POP day!

That green showing up everywhere always gets me thinking about and craving green vegetables. Sadly, though, salad greens are kind of tough and lame at this time of year, but the sautéing greens, such as kale, mustard, and chard, are all great, so I figured now is the perfect time to share my tried and true honey greens recipe with you!

Honey Greens


This is a spin off on a recipe my brother introduced me to years and years ago that used brown sugar instead of honey. Before having his version I had never really enjoyed chard or mustard greens, but once he put these sweet and sour greens down on my plate I was hooked! This is a recipe I often share with clients who are skeptical of greens and is also a side vegetable that I can (usually) count on my boys to enjoy with gusto. If you have lots of mouths to feed and will be doubling or tripling the recipe, I am a big fan of a mix of chard and mustard greens, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them!


Honey Greens
 
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Recipe type: Vegetable, Side
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • Dash of cayenne (optional)
  • ½ cup onion, chopped
  • 1 bunch of kale, mustard, or chard greens. Stemmed, rinsed, and torn into bite-sized pieces.
  • 1 tablespoon rice or apple cider vinegar
  • ½ tablespoon honey (or more, to taste)
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil on medium-high head in a large frying pan and add a dash of cayenne (if using).
  2. When the oil is hot and shimmering, but not smoking, add the onion and cook until it is translucent.
  3. Turn the heat down to medium and add greens, stirring constantly. When the greens have turned bright “army” green, turn off the heat.
  4. Add the vinegar and some salt and pepper. Stir to mix and then drizzle the honey over and give it one last stir. Serve immediately.

 

6 Winter Salads to Help You Survive ‘Til Spring

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It’s Ground Hog Day! The day when we hear whether we are going to have an early spring or a late one. This is a day when I always roll my eyes, chuckle about how it isn’t really true, and then desperately want to know what the outcome was. Did the groundhog see his shadow?! Is spring on its way?!

I am sad to report, in case you didn’t hear, that, according to Punxsutawney Phil, we’ve got 6 more weeks of winter ahead of us. (womp, womp). So what does that mean for those of us who are sick of our sweaters, desperate for the sun, and eager to eat fresh produce? We’ve got to get creative!

Last week I shared my Wild Blueberry Flavor Burst Smoothie, which has been helping on the fruit front (even my 8-year-old smoothie-hating son liked it!), but what about the vegetables? I mean, I love soups and stews probably more than most people but even this veggie-fiend can get a little desperate…


So this week I reached out to some of my food blogger friends to ask them to share their favorite ways to get more vegetables in during the winter months and they all shared salad recipes!…

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How to Make a Noodle Soup Without a Recipe

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My family has been on a BIG noodle soup kick this winter. Chicken noodle, vegetable noodle, and Asian noodle have all been on regular rotation and I am loving it! Why? Four reasons: 1) they are easy to make in 30 minutes, 2) they are cheap, 3) I can use whatever I have left in my fridge and it will turn out great, and 4) it is an easy way to get more vegetables in!…

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Chicken and Kale Noodle Casserole

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This winter has been a weird one, hasn’t it? Crazy warm for a while, then a blizzard on the East Coast that has wreaked havoc. It is kind of hard to know which way is up. My response to such wackiness? Comfort food. Creamy, warm, nourishing comfort food.

My mom calls these foods nursery foods because it is what you would feed little kids in a nursery back in the day. And I’ve got an updated version of nursery food for you today! This is a recipe I developed for a cooking client, but it was such a hit with them and my own family that I thought I would share it with you. This Chicken and Kale Noodle Casserole is sort of like a baked chicken alfredo pasta with a bonus dose of kale. It is creamy, soothing, and warm—all those things we crave at this time of year. But it has the added perk of being healthy enough that it won’t derail your goal of eating healthier in the New Year (if that was a goal of yours)!…

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Wilted Kale Salad: A Cure for the Winter Blues

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Is anyone else overtired, stressed, or feeling sluggish? The other day as I was realizing that I was feeling really low energy and unmotivated. In theory, I was doing everything right—exercising, getting plenty of fruits and vegetables, sleeping (ok, maybe not sleeping enough, but getting some sleep)—but I was still dragging and then it came to me: greens. I wasn’t getting enough leafy greens.

Many (most) of us don’t get enough leafy greens, but they are so important. They are great for circulation and respiratory support, they boost our immune systems, and they provide a great energy boost. I hadn’t been eating them, though, because as the weather gets colder I am less drawn to smoothies and salads. So out came my sautéed and wilted green recipes to provide me some warmth, while still giving me all the benefits of the greens. And it worked! While I may not be stress-free and perky, I am definitely feeling much more alert and focused….

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Spanish-Style Kale

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When I was a junior in college I studied abroad in Barcelona. It was an amazing 6 months with many adventures, wonderful friends, and lots and lots of delicious food. I was incredibly lucky because the mother in my host family was a fantastic cook and she introduced me to many traditional Spanish and Catalan dishes.

One of my favorites was Espinacas a la Catalana (Catalan-style Spinach). It was a revelation. It is a garlicky sautéed spinach with raisins and pine nuts mixed in. While spinach had always been one of my favorite vegetables, the way that she balanced salty, sweet, and garlic in the dish with a light crunch from the pine nuts was wonderfully addictive. When it came time to have my good-bye dinner and she asked me what I wanted on the menu, Espinacas a la Catalana was my number one request.

Since then, it has been a dish that I make from time to time, especially if I have some really nice, fresh spinach. Last week I was craving it but didn’t have any of the ingredients (panic stations!), so I decided to try my hand at a variation… and it was delicious! So today I am sharing it with you….


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Tostada Salad

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When I was a kid I was a pretty picky eater and the most difficult meal for me (and my poor mom) was breakfast. I hated breakfast. So time and time again my mom would work with me to find some sort of breakfast that I would be willing to eat. Once she found one, then I would go on a major food jag and would only eat that one kind of breakfast day after day after day, until I would get sick of it (I would literally gag at the sight of the food) and refuse to ever eat it again. She must have wanted to kill me some days…

As I got older I began to realize that obsessively eating certain foods was slowly ruining them for me (I still have trouble with Canadian bacon, for instance), so I pushed myself to alternate foods so this wouldn’t happen. As a parent, I have also worked very hard to encourage variety in my boys’ diets so that they don’t grow sick of any one food.

But the recipe that I am going to share with you today is actually what I eat almost every single day for lunch. How is that possible? Because it is incredibly flexible, I just use whatever I have in the house that day, so every day is different!…


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5-minute Breakfast Scramble: Getting vegetables into breakfast

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We all know we should be eating more vegetables. Many of us try to get them through salads at lunch or an extra serving at dinner, and those are great approaches. But what about breakfast? In mainstream U.S. culture, vegetables in breakfast is often a strange concept, unless you are having a fancy brunch with a frittata or quiche (which can also be easy and quick breakfast foods, like these spinach bites). Instead we often think of breakfast as the time for starches and fruit.

One of my favorite ways to get the veggies into my breakfast is with the 5-minute breakfast scramble. This easy, delicious, and fun option for breakfast is a great way to get everyone off on the right foot. It’s got protein, carbs, and vegetables, and can be adapted in countless ways….

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Eat Your Greens! Ways to get more leafy green goodness into your life

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When you hear leafy green vegetables mentioned what is the first thing you think of? Sad, limp steamed spinach? Bland broccoli? That thing that was on your plate as a kid that you either choked down to get it over with or pushed around your plate hoping that it would look like you ate some?

The truth is, many of us are not big fans of leafy greens and all of us need to eat more of them. Leafy green vegetables are amazing for our health and well-being. They give us energy, boost our immune systems, provide respiratory support when we have a cold, help to clean our blood, and improve our circulation. And they can also be delicious.

So now that we have reached the time of year when farmer’s markets, CSAs, and grocery stores are overflowing with green leafy goodness, how can we make it more appealing than those sad memories from when we were kids (or last week)?


Here are some ways to get more greens in that are fun, flavorful, and easy:…

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Kale Pizza

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As is often the case at this time of year, things in our house are CRAZY BUSY. The to-do list is over a page long and that doesn’t even include work or all of the school events happening this week. It can be a bit overwhelming. It is times like these when I start to fight the urge to order pizza. Every night.

So I have been trying to focus on making quick, easy meals- veggie fried rice, veggie quesadillas, quick pastas, etc. These are great, but last night I really wanted something different. I sort of wanted pizza but I also had a lot of kale in the house that needed to be eaten. So I decided to make kale pizza. I thought maybe I had gone off the deep end, but then I found that others have had the same idea in the past. And it turns out, kale on pizza is awesome. Really….

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